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Topic: Carpenter Ants Attacking Help (Read 3206 times)

I checked my hives today and I have carpenter ants all over one of my hives and starting in a second.

The ants were on top of the inner cover and in the slide out drawer of my SBB. They seem to like it in the debrie. They have begun chewing on my supers. I hope I can save these hives. I have no idea where their nest is. My bees are next to a woods.

My hives are on cement blocks. I'm going to build a stand tomorrow with legs and use the oil in a bucket treatment. It would be cool if there is anyone nearby who has any extra stands already available. I don't have the time to build stnda, but if I'm going to save my bees, I'll guess I'll have to do it.

Since they are massing on the slide out wood tray under the screen on the SBB, they can't get into the hive through the screen unless they chew through a wood area. My main concern is them getting into the hives through the hole in the inner cover. The bees are packages I installed on April 30.

What if I took out the tray altogether? Would the brood get chilled? I'm in Minnesota and the nights are still getting down into the 50s. I was keeping it in to check mites and help keep the new package warm for the brood. If I did take the tray out the ants couldn't mass there, would they just move into the hive then?

I suppose my answer is the hive stand and oil.

Thanks for listening. I'm disappointed. I've never had such trouble with my bees before. I'm especially troubled because my young 10 year-old protege's family put a good deal of money into getting set-up. I'd hate to see them have a bad experience for their first try.

Ron, a company named Nisus makes a product called Niban. I was told by their entomologist that it won't harm the bees because the bees won't consume it. I have used this product for a couple of years now myself for other insects like American roaches, I have seen carpenter bees pick this product up, it is boric acid impregnated in corn cob & it is weather proof. carpenter bees & oak trees go hand in hand, particularly ones that have damage. Look for trees in your area that have bad spots & you may find your nest. Get the Niban Large granular product cause they make a fine granular as well. Carpenter ants are protein feeders. JP

I recently split a hive into three. One was attacked by carpenter ants. It looked like an 8th century war was going on with bee and ant corpses piling up into a mound in front of the hive. I simply stomped every ant I could find. I pulled the hive completly apart and killed every ant that came running out. Every frame was pulled out and inspected thoroughly. I changed the location and the hive body. I added an entrance reducer and made sure every cranny was tightly sealed. Every day I went to check on the hive to switch frames around because there was some serious robbing happening during the fiasco.

The problem was that the hive was weak when the ants attacked. Also the hive body did not sit well on the base allowing ants to enter and exit from all different directions. And there was no entrance reducer. Also, the hive sat on cinder blocks giving the ants easy access. Now the hive is strong. I've taken off the entrance reducer. It was first set on the winter setting, then the larger setting, now it's completely open. Any invader is simply picked up and carried away by the bees.